On this week’s episode of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Eileen Davidson shocked her co-stars and viewers when she revealed that she is a survivor of domestic abuse. In her blog this week she shares what inspired her to reveal such a personal experience from her past.

Surprisingly, Eileen says it was Yolanda Foster who was behind her decision to share this shocking story. “In Amsterdam, Yolanda inspired me during our dinner conversation when she asked us to dig deeper. I wanted to share this then. However, that dinner took an unfortunate turn, and it never happened. So, I waited for the right time again to open up to the ladies about this part of my past.”

Eileen explains, “I’ve been very blessed in my life. I’m a wife, a mother, stepmother, actress, author, and many other things. But these aren’t the only labels that define me. I’m also a physical abuse survivor.”

She doesn’t want anyone to think that only weak women wind up in abusive situations. “I consider myself a strong woman. I’ve played strong female characters throughout my acting career. I think most people who know me would describe me that way. Being “strong” doesn’t mean you can’t find yourself in an abusive relationship. It can happen to anyone. I know, because I’ve been in two of them; once when I was a teenager, and again in my 20s. I know what it means to be in a place where your self-esteem is so low that you believe, maybe even subconsciously, that you deserve to be mistreated. Or maybe you are under a delusion that you can somehow change a troubled partner’s behavior with your love.”

She adds, “Maybe people might say I don’t “look like” or “seem like” the kind of person that this could happen to. The truth is, there is no stereotypical victim.Our country is in a domestic violence crisis. I was fortunate to leave my abuse in the past. Many people aren’t so lucky. Each year in the US, over two million women are victims of domestic violence. It doesn’t just affect women, but they are the majority. If I can say anything to the many women and men out there who think there’s no way out, it would be: You are not alone. You can be strong. You can get help. You can leave.”

Eileen says in this week’s blog that it’s a strange coincidence that the only other time she spoke of her abuse publicly had to do with talk of what happened with Nicole Brown Simpson. “I’ve only spoken about this publicly one other time. When I remembered where it was, I had to take a moment to reflect on the alarming cosmic sync-up. Turns out, I did an interview with a magazine about my history of domestic violence in reference to Nicole Brown Simpson, right after she was murdered. It’s too strange to be just a coincidence that her death was brought up again, decades later, in the very same episode that I chose to bring my past abuse to light.”

TELL US – ARE YOU SURPRISED THAT YOLANDA IS THE ONE WHO INSPIRED EILEEN?